After finishing third in the Sprint race of the Qatar GP, Aleix Espargaró had encouraging prospects for the main race in Losail. The Aprilia rider believed in victory, but the truth is that he ended up suffering from problems with the low temperature of the rear tire and only managed to finish in eighth place.
In an interview with the championship’s official website, the Spanish rider didn’t hide his disappointment: ‘I was expecting a completely different race. From the beginning, right on the warm-up lap going to the grid, I felt that I had no grip at all. Something went wrong with the rear tire, I wasn’t expecting this performance at all. So we have to work with Michelin and the team to understand what happened. It’s clear that with the pace we showed in the final part of the Sprint, I was aiming for a completely different race. But there was nothing I could really do, it was a nightmare race‘.
Espargaro believes it was a missed opportunity, despite showing a good performance with the new RS-GP: ‘We showed that we have a good bike, I was very, very fast all weekend, the speed is there, so it’s very, very important. But I’m a bit annoyed because we missed a good opportunity. When I went to sleep on Saturday, I felt like I had the win in my hands, I dreamt of winning on Sunday. But unfortunately there was nothing I could do‘.
